The Giants jumped out to a 2-0 lead but saw it quickly evaporate. Anthony DeSclafani gave up a grand slam in the 2nd and was done after three innings (78 pitches) with the team trailing 5-2. Of his nine outs seven were whiffs. That spoiled, for a bit, the debut of rookie phenom Luis Matos who singled in his first appearance (second batter of the game) and later scored the team's second run. Welcome to the big club, Luis! Show us what you got!
Jakob Junis provided some stability with three shutout frames. That's two big long-relief performances in two games. Starting pitching is a little thin right now and the team needs some quality bulk-innings work so that's a good sign. David Villar, back with the team because of J.D. Davis' ankle sprain, doubled in the 7th and Mike Yastrzemski drove him home to make it 5-3. It was a harbinger of things to come.
Southpaw Taylor Rogers took the 7th, Ryan Walker the 8th, and righty submariner TYLER Rogers handled the 9th. The Rogers Boys threw a total of 15 pitches (14 for strikes!).
LaMonte Wade, Jr. walked to lead off the 9th. With two outs Yaz hit one of those miraculous game-tying homers that you root for every time but hardly ever get. What a great moment! That was a big, big blast. It gave the Giants a second chance at a sweep. When a team gets rolling it needs an occasional miracle to keep the positive vibes flowing.
In the 10th Thairo Estrada plated Yaz (the Manfred Man) with a single and then stole second. Wilmer Flores singled him in and took the extra bag on the throw home. Late Inning LaMonte took advantage of that and singled Wilmer home to make it 8-5. Camilo Doval struck out both Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado as part of his 18th save and the Giants fourth straight win.
36 wins may not seem like much but it puts the Giants in 12th place among all 30 MLB teams. Their .529 win percentage is better (at this moment) than Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Seattle, Minnesota, and San Diego among others. This team was 6-13 on April 21st! They've gone 30-19 (.612) since then.
It's a critical stretch of the schedule as the next ten games are against division foes. Tomorrow is an off-day then there is a weekend series in LA (Friday 7:10, Sat 6:10, Sun 1:10 PT). They come home the following week for four against the Padres and three against the NL West-leading Diamondbacks.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
7 comments:
I was listening to the Spanish broadcasters (you can get the KSFN feed on MLB Gameday Audio) and they call our closer "Camilo Tranquilo" which I think is a great nickname.
The giants had a little bit of that 2021 magic back today. Desclafani looked sharp at times, and at other times (often in the same inning) looked anything but sharp. Reminds me a little bit of the Tomko era. The guy threw 95 or 96 and coupled that with a small but sharp breaking slider. Tomko would often be tossing a shutout thru 3 or 4 innings, and then the next inning would just fall apart giving up 4 or 5 runs. Then, he would settle down again. The performance today was Tomko-esque. That late inning 2 out magic, the magic of 2021, the magic of why I was so upset when Flores was called out on a check swing to end the 2021 post season for the giants. That is why calls matter. The Universe had meant for Flores to homer on the next pitch, and the umpire behind first base screwed-up the entire space time continuum. Now onto the Bums. The dodgers pitching is Jekyl and Hyde. Their splits on the road are terrible, but they are really good at home. Their numbers on the road would even be worse if it were not for their series at Oracle earlier in the year. I think I am going to learn spanish. Would like to listen and understand some of those Spanish broadcasts which I am missing.
I don't speak Spanish but I enjoy trying to follow the games. You get familiar with some things pretty quick like "captura" means "caught"! Anyway the Giants broadcaster (Edwin Higueros) is really good. He has a great voice and superb pace and always reminds you of the count and situation. He also says "foul" immediately instead of waxing poetically about the flight of the ball (like Jon Miller) before letting you know it is out of play! When Tito Fuentes is on as the color analyst I can't understand him at all, his accent is impenetrable. There's another color analyst who is easier to follow but I don't know his name.
I never understood why Brett Tomko wasn't a great pitcher as he always had great stuff.
I like Miller's voice, but he drives me crazy in trying to find out what happened in a play, as he will speak a few sentences before we find out what happened. My favorite giants broadcaster of all time was Les Keiter, who used to rebroadcast the giants and maybe even the dodger games on the east coast. I think listen to Keiter ended up in my friend Barry Fialk being a sports caster, and later and (currently) owning a sports production broadcasting company out of N.Y.
Miller has a golden voice, a real gift. But he does exactly what you say--talks and talks and does not "resolve" the play. He forgets to say "out" or "foul" or "safe" and stuff like that. You have to rely on crowd noise to guess the outcome. I think he has done too much TV and his radio skills have degraded.
The best announcer I ever heard was Bill King doing basketball. He was really good at Raiders football but his "simul-casts" doing both radio and TV for the Warriors were beyond compare. He was amazingly articulate and could describe rapid action without missing a beat. He would always apologize to listeners before each broadcast saying "he might allude to something visual" and then he would apologize to the viewers for having to over-describe something that seemed obvious! He was very tuned in to what the audience needed and expected. Miller could use a dose of that man's practical humility.
Found this link about Les Keiter.
Will say this about Les Keiter. His calls were extremely detailed, very colorful and full of excitement. Even though in N.Y. had the opportunity to listen to some of the greats like Mel Allen, Vin Scully and some of the standard Giants announcers, plus a few others Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, If I could listen to Keiter I would. His broadcast of the game where McCovey made his debut was awesome. I think my friend Barry Fialk who was a broadcaster, and now owns a sports production company in N.Y. that puts on many sports productions, was spurred on by listening to Keiter Broadcast.
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